THE STRANGE DARK ONE AND OTHERS

The Strange Dark One and Others -- Tales of Nyarlathotep. This is a book idea I've had for a wee while, and its time hath come. I proposed it today to David Wynn at Mythos Books, and he said "Yes, yes, yes!" The contents as I see it will be something like this:

"Recompense of Sorrow" (5,000 words, reprint)
"Some Bacchante of Irem" (3,000 words, reprint)
"The Audient Void" (1,500 words, heavily revised reprint)
"The Hands that Reek and Smoke" (3,000 words, reprint)
"One Last Theft" (10,000 words, reprint)
"The Strange Dark One" (new yet-to-be-written novelette)
"This Terrible Relic" (new yet-to-be written weird tale)
"To See Beyond" (7,500 words, my just-completed sequel to Robert Bloch's "The Cheaters")
and I want to write a new wee sonnet cycle to ye Crawling Chaos.

"The Strange Dark One" will, as I see it, be a Sesqua Valley novelette set in 1917 and concerning a group of avant-garde poets who all witness a singular cosmic vision concerning the Faceless God. This is a work I've had in mind for some time, with two characters based on real poets: H. D. (Hilda Doolittle) and Robert H. Barlow. I am especially eager to write a loving portrayal of a character based on Barlow, yet one who embraces and survives being queer, rather than taking his life as Barlow did.

I am also well into the first chapter of The Fabulous Darkness -- A Novel of Richard Upton Pickman, that I am writing with Maryanne K. Snyder. And I am well into working on the next book for Hippocampus Press, primarily a collection of prose poems. Lots and lots of writing ahead, yeehaw!!!!

Comments

  1. .

    I think it's a great idea for a collection. Connected stories are better than not connected, I think, though they're so often done so badly that it would have been better to stick with apparent randomnity.

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  2. The trick is to avoid repetition of theme and imagery, not one of my strong points. "This Terrible Relic" will, for example, be a semi-sequel to Lovecraft's "The Haunter of the Dark," something I've had in mind for quite a while but never had the proper book in which to include it. The idea I have seems good enough for a 5,000 word story, although I would not mind if it turned out to be a 10,000 word opus. It will be a tale in which I can investigate aspects of Nyarlathotep as He is shewn in Lovecraft's original story, and I figure He will be a major aspect of the plot; whereas in the Sesqua Valley novelette I am planning, he will be mentioned but not have much interaction with the plot, but rather it will be his influence on dreaming that will be spotlighted. I'm really looking forward to writing those two new things.

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  3. Yes yes YES! I love your Nyarlathotep.

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